Reid doubles down on Hispanic line

Harry Reid’s campaign is not shying away from the Senate majority leader’s questioning of why “anyone with Hispanic heritage could be a Republican,” instead using it to attack GOP Senate nominee Sharron Angle's relationships with the Hispanic community.

Reid made the comment Tuesday after being asked a question about immigration at a campaign stop with Hispanic supporters.

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"I don't know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican, OK?" Reid said. "Do I need to say more?"

Angle's campaign seized on the comment, telling POLITICO in an e-mail that “Harry Reid cannot give any good reasons why people should vote for him, so now he is turning to race and ethnicity.”

“Reid is desperate to change the subject from the economy, which he knows is a losing issue for him,” said Angle spokesman Jarrod Agen.

But in a statement Wednesday morning, the Reid campaign doubled down on the line.

“Sen. Reid’s contention was simply that he doesn't understand how anyone, Hispanic or otherwise, would vote for Republican candidates because they oppose saving teachers’ jobs, oppose job-creating tax incentives for small businesses, oppose investments in job-creating clean energy projects, and oppose the help for struggling, unemployed Nevadans to put food on the table and stay in their homes,” read the statement.

“Nevadans are suffering in this economy,” the statement continued, shifting to an attack on Republicans over the economy. “Senator Reid was rightly pointing out that Republicans like Sharron Angle who oppose job-creating measures and unemployment benefits, oppose emergency aid to save 1,200 Nevada teachers, and who want to wipe out critical programs like Social Security and Medicare, are part of the problem, not part of the solution.”

Reid’s campaign also pointed reporters to research from the campaign on Angle’s “extreme and dangerous agenda for Hispanic Nevadans,” including a report from Las Vegas’s KLAS on complaints from Hispanic media outlets that they have been “shut out” from covering Angle’s campaign.

“Sharron Angle’s extreme and dangerous agenda for Hispanic Nevadans is something she obviously wants to hide, which is why she and her allies will do or say anything to attack Sen. Reid and shift the focus from the intense heat her campaign has been under,” Reid campaign spokesman José Dante Parra said.

“Despite the efforts of Republicans like Sharron Angle to change the U.S. Constitution and block comprehensive immigration reform, Sen. Reid will continue to wake up and fight every day for the interests of Hispanic Nevadans.”